Consumer products such automobiles, photographic cameras and personal computers have included apparatus for providing audible messages to a user. Such apparatus includes a memory for storing digital representations of the audible messages and a special purpose decoder for converting the digital representations into corresponding analog signals. The special purpose decoder and the connective structure required to route the digital representations of the audio messages to the decoder adds cost and complexity to the consumer product which may not be warranted compared to the benefit it provides. This is especially the case where the audible user information comprises voice instructions or status indications.